A new generation of young women engineers through their Institute of Engineers Tanzania Women’s Chapter (IET Women Chapter) is encouraging the girl-child to focus on science subjects to secure jobs in engineering field that are on high demand.
Taking the initiative to secondary schools and providing guidance to girls on the required courses in pursuit to achieve the goal, being also a way of closing the gender gap in the mostly male engineering industry, the proponents led by Engineers Tanzania Women’s Chapter (IET Women Chapter) Chairperson, Engineer Rehana Juma said that number of women working in engineering is increasing but more are needed.
“Engineering skills are in short supply, and it’s predicted that future jobs will increasingly require these types of technical skills and women can help to meet the demand for technical skills.
“The Engineers Registration Board (ERB) has registered about 35,000 engineers and only 4, 600 of them are women, hence, we call upon the girl-child to pursue science subjects, so that the challenge in the deeply rooted male-dominated engineering profession and a once no-go area for undergraduate girls is addressed,” she said.
For decades, the country’s engineering profession was perceived as a man’s arena, discouraging women from entering, where according to the government’s statistics, Tanzania had only 2,595 professional engineers in 2010, with only 96, estimated as 3.7 per cent women.
Elaborating, she noted that the initiative also encourages and brings together women engineers to be part of the solution to engineering challenges in the country and build their capacity to participate in the overall development of the country.
For that to be achieved, the Women Engineers Unit also holds workshops for female engineering students in their final years of university studies, to inform them about the opportunities available in the engineering job market. This is equally done by listing various problems that exist in the society and giving them the opportunity to use engineering creativity to come up with their solutions.
“This gives them space to think and act like engineers, increase their ability to express themselves, influence and realize their leadership potential,” she said.
On her part Enginer Esther Christopher, who is Council Secretary said the Women Engineers Tanzania has been organizing and celebrating annual conferences accompanied by exhibitions of creative work from women engineers, college students and high school girls.
In particular, she said the conference known as TAWECE (Tanzania Women Engineers Convention and Exhibitions) benefits the participants by building their capacities through presentations on selected topics from emerging presenters, getting business ideas for improvements or coming up with new solutions from the innovative projects presented.
Her list also included meeting and networking, and commending and recognizing the significant contributions that women engineers have made to the society.
“The Women Engineers Conference for this year will be held for two days, from Thursday 03/08/2023 to Friday 04/08/2023 in Zanzibar. This year’s theme is ‘The Power of Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering Workforce, Women’s Perspectives’,” Engineer Christopher said
To be graced by Zanzibar President, Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, who is also Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, the conference will coincide with the Women Engineers awards known as Mama Engineer Awards that will be presented for the second time since its inception last year.
“This year we will recognize the contributions of women and give out various awards including the Female Lead Engineer of the Year, Female Research Engineer/Inventor of the Year, Female Entrepreneur of the Year and Best Project of the Year from Female Graduate Engineer,” she said..
Through this period, we ask all institutions with women engineers and technicians to allow and pay for them to attend as it is very important to them. We are also asking donors who can afford to pay for the cost of participation of graduate students and engineers to show up in large numbers for their participation. We also invite engineers who have not yet joined the institute to join through our website www.ietwomenchapter.or.tz.”